JONGKEY
Of course Jonghyun was sad to say goodbye to London, and to Key's cousin who had been nothing but accepting and understanding of his relationship with Key, especially after the awkward incident in which she found them making out in her own living room.
Key had spent over thirty minutes fussing over Ji-Hyun, making sure she was okay even though she had lived by herself for most of her life. Jonghyun eventually had to drag him out of her cozy flat, in case they missed their flight home back to Korea.
"Bye!" Ji-Hyun called as Jonghyun grabbed his boyfriend's bag (as he was apparently "too tired" to carry it for himself) and disappeared down the hallway to the elevator. Key waved back before his cousin shut the door, and sighed happily to himself.
"I knew you two would get along," Key commented as they got into the elevator. Jonghyun nodded, agreeing that Ji-Hyun was, in fact, very lovely and an easy person to talk to.
"I'm sad to leave," Jonghyun muttered, wrapping his arm around Key's waist. "Do you think we'll ever be able to come back to London?"
"We can ask the manager-hyungs what they think," Key mused, leaning his head against Jonghyun's shoulder. They had had a busy week of shopping, sightseeing and just generally having fun, but now that the short holiday was over, they were all exhausted and in dire need of a good night's rest.
***
"Onew!" Key called, waving his hand in the air to get their leader's attention. Onew quickly spotted him and was soon by their side. "Where's Minho and Taemin?" Key asked, noticing that they weren't with Onew even though they had shared the same hotel building.
"I don't know," Onew admitted. "They were right behind me about half an hour ago, but when I went to see if they were okay, they were no longer there." Onew noticed Jonghyun's odd look and quickly added: "But I'm sure they're fine. They'll be back soon, I hope."
"Well, I'll call Minho in a second. Everyone knows how terrible Taemin is with his phone," Jonghyun rolled his eyes and laughed.
"He already lost it twice this holiday," Onew laughed along with the other two. "But each time, he found it down the side of the bed."
"Speak of the devil," Key muttered grinning as Taemin and Minho came into view. They had just walked out of the public toilets - both looking dishevelled. "Did they look like that before they arrived?"
"I--" Onew started, frowning to himself, but he was cut off when Minho yelled, running over to pull all five of them into a group hug.
"Yah! SHINee's back!"
"Shut up!" Jonghyun laughed, pushing him away and sorting out his shirt which had been crumpled. "What took you so long? The plane leaves in an hour and we haven't even checked in." They all nodded in agreement and swiftly made their way over to the check-in desk.
"You didn't forget your passport, did you?" Key joked, nudging Taemin to get behind him in the queue. Taemin tried to defend himself, but they others just laughed him off, leaving Taemin pouting. Minho wrapped an arm over the maknae's shoulder, shaking his head and whispering to him that they didn't really mean it.
The SHINee boys soon had their tickets and were on their way back home.
ONEW
"Hey! I'm home now."
Onew sent a quick text to Ji-Min, hoping that she'd have the time for him to go over to her small cafe and talk to her. Despite the tired state Onew was in, he was adamant that he would see Ji-Min before the day was over.
"Welcome home, Jinki!"
Was that it? Onew couldn't help but feel a little disappointed with her reply, but he wasn't sure what he expected anyway. He quickly asked if he could come over and see her, and of course she accepted. Onew grinned to himself, already walking from his room to find his shoes. He hadn't even began to unpack his clothes yet, and the other members of SHINee were probably hoping that he would cook them all dinner. But not tonight.
"Yah, where are you going?" Key had found their leader tying up his shoe laces on the door mat, ready to leave their home.
"I'm going to meet someone for a couple of hours. You can make yourself dinner, right?" Onew blushed, hoping that Key wouldn't see it under the dim light of the hallway.
"Going out? But it's almost 8PM." Then his eye widened, as if he realised what that meant. "Oh," he smirked, patting Onew on the head. "Yeah, I'll cook something up." Key waved him out of the door, smiling to himself as he shut the front door behind him.
Onew made his way down to the familiar cafe, glad to find Ji-Min chilling out on a stool behind the counter, reading a magazine. The cafe was completely empty, and it looked as if Ji-Min was ready to close up for the night. Onew couldn't help but feel guilty that he was probably the reason Ji-Min hadn't gone home yet.
"Hey," he said cautiously as he entered the shop. The harsh winter air sent chills down his spine as he finally found warmth within the cafe.
"Onew," Ji-Min greeted back. She looked worn out, increasing Onew's guilt. "I'm glad you decided to visit me."
Onew made his way behind the counter as if it was just the natural thing to do and wrapped his arms around Ji-Min, pulling her into a hug. "Why's that?"
Ji-Min shrugged as if it was obvious. "Because I've missed you." Onew raised an eyebrow, knowing that she was hiding something from him. "I mean..."
"What's going on?" Onew asked, tucking Ji-Min's hair behind her ears.
"I just... I've been so bored around here recently and since you've been gone, things have been even more boring. It's fun when Seung-gi is here, but he's been so busy with work," she huffed.
Seung-gi?
Oh yeah, her fiancé.
He always forgot his name, as it was mostly unimportant to him and he'd never even met the guy. However, if they did happen to meet, Onew would surely make the effort to remember his name...
Maybe.
"We could have video chatted more often, we didn't really do much anyway," Onew said and Ji-Min sighed.
"But it isn't the same. Sure, it's fun when we laugh and all that, but it's not like I can take my laptop with me to the park and have fun there; it's better when you're here in person," Ji-Min explained and Onew raised an eyebrow.
He was getting confused - he wasn't sure what she meant by this. Surely she wasn't flirting with him, that would mean she is effectively cheating!
Kind of.
Maybe not.
But still, she shouldn't be having these kind of worries if she had a fiancé. If she was thinking about it in that way, that is. She may only be thinking about it in a friendly way, which was the most likely option.
"Well, I'm back now, isn't that all that matters?" Onew tried to reason with her and she nodded solemnly.
"I guess you're right... Do you want to do something soon?" she suggested and Onew raised an eyebrow.
"Like what?" he inquired.
"We could go to the park, or shopping, or the movies. Whatever you want to do," she explained and Onew nodded.
"Sure, how about tomorrow?" he asked and Ji-Min suddenly turned timid.
"Yah, Onew... It's the wedding next week and I have a lot of planning to do," she reminded him and Onew sighed.
"Oh yeah," he mumbled, trying his best to sound as unaffected as possible.
"How about next week? The wedding will be over then and I won't be as stressed," she said, laughing nervously and Onew nodded.
"Sure, I'll see you then... Good luck with your wedding planning," he replied, trying to sound as cheery as possible.
"Thank you, bye!" Ji-Min waved at Onew as he left the building, hands stuffed into his pockets and head turned down to the ground.
"I wish love was easy..." Onew whispered to himself, and he began his journey back home.
--
"Onew, are you seriously going to let her go that easily? You're an idiot!" Key scolded as Onew explained to him what happened.
"I can't exactly do anything, Key! She's getting married next week!" Onew was close to shouting - Key wasn't exactly helping much.
"Onew, if she doesn't know you love her you'll regret it forever, even if she doesn't return the feelings," he countered, causing Onew to sigh in defeat.
"She knows I like her, sort of. Isn't that enough?" he asked and Key shook his head.
"You need to do something, Onew. If you want to stay friends with her, something needs to be done, and only you can fix it."
Onew nodded. He knew Key was right, he was just afraid of the outcome.
"Okay, thank you."
"Anytime, hyung." Key nodded and Onew walked to his room.
He knew he had to do something, but he had to think of what and how before it was too late.
Before him and Ji-Min drifted apart for good.